Monday, January 30, 2012

Cereal Box Valentine Chair Backers

While listening to our audio books this weekend (I might have reviews ready by next weekend), we had plenty of time to get a jump on February crafting.

The first project we tackled was to recycle cereal boxes into chair backers, to hold the Valentine's I hope the children will make for each other over the next couple of weeks.

First, we cut all except for four inches of the front and sides of the boxes away.

The part that remained intact formed the base of the box, while the long flap was folded and trimmed to become the lid. We found the easiest way to fold the lid was to flatten the box...

...and fold the flap down over it...

...then to set the box back up over the folded flap, to mark for the second fold...

...which we folded over a ruler. Then, we could trim the long part down to make a nice sized flap for the front of the box.

We unfolded the box completely (I've marked in the picture where we folded and trimmed the flap, for clarity), and traced it out on paper...

...to cut and glue onto the cardboard. We reverse folded all the folds before we glued the paper on, so the paper went on over what had been the inside of the box, to keep the printing from showing through.

I punched two holes on either side of the top of the back of each box with a hole punch.

Then we glued and taped, the sides and bottom of the boxes back together. Depending on each child's preference, the lid of their box either tucked in the top...

...or we added stick on Velcro to the front of the box, and the inside of the flap, so it could open and close like a purse.

Finally, all that was left was to lace yarn through the holes, for tying the boxes to the backs of the chairs, and adding stickers for decorations.

I gave the children label type dot stickers, thinking polka dot boxes would look cute in the dining room.

The children had other plans though, and pulled out all of our sticker stash to choose from, as well as crayons and markers - individualizing their boxes. T chose to leave his box undecorated. At 14, he's willing to receive Valentine's from his brother and sisters, especially if they happen to be chocolate, but not to have any part in decorating a frilly-dilly box.

I was given the Versatile Blogger Award and I would like to pass the Award on to you. There are details on my blog that explain it all. http://shellesplayschool.wordpress.com/ I hope you will play along!

About Me

I'm a homeschool mom of six. My family has been homeschooling for about fourteen years. And, each year, we've learned a little more about having fun, and spending less, while learning more. It's great to be a homeschooler!

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I'm very happy to share ideas, and thoughts with you. I try to give credit to others when they inspire, or add instructions to a project, and ask that you do the same for me. You may copy ideas and pictures from this blog as long as you give credit and link back to the original post. Thanks

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Generally this blog is about sharing ideas parent to parent, and not trying to sell you things. I often mention products that I like, the children like, or we've found very useful, but unless specifically stated in the post, I am not being reimbursed for my opinions. There are advertisements (which I believe use cookies) on this blog, located outside of the posts. I do receive a small kick-back when you click on the ads, so please feel free to click on as many of them as you like.